Dan Mills

Born and raised on a family farm in Ohio, Dan Mills was introduced to aviation by his grandfather – a farmer who had earned his Commercial pilot’s certificate and had an airstrip on the farm. His first flight was from that airstrip, with his grandfather in his Piper Tri-Pacer.

Following a successful college basketball career, Mills relocated to Elizabethton, TN to attend The Moody Bible Institute’s Moody Aviation where he received his A&P mechanic license; Private, Commercial, ATP certifications; Instrument, Float Plane, AMEL, CFI-A, CFI-I, CFI-AMEL ratings. Mills taught at Moody for 23 years during which time he also served as a missionary pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Indonesia as well as Africa, Georgia (Russia), and Haiti.

Rev. Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse then asked Mills to setup a Part 135 flight operation in Alaska and fly volunteer dentists and doctors into Far East Russia. Rev. Graham and Mills would later be the first pilots to land a US-registered private aircraft in North Korea. 

In 2010, at age 60, Mills became the aviation teacher at Elizabethton High School where he taught and influenced the lives and aviation careers of hundreds of students which has

led to an alumni corps of airline pilots, charter pilots, air traffic controllers, aviation mechanics, flight instructors, as well as successful members of the business community.

Mills developed and taught six different aviation courses for students. His flight experience, as well as his experience in the classroom, led him to have a large part in the writing, and later revising, of the aviation courses’ standards taught in high schools across the State of Tennessee.

Mills also developed relationships with other aviation-minded individuals to establish a program to financially assist his high school students to solo and obtain a Private Pilot Certificate at a significantly reduced cost.

Dan Mills’ leadership in the field of Missionary aviation, as well as his influence on countless members of the next generation have led to an incredible furtherance of aviation in Tennessee and the World. Mills’ primary goal was to encourage his students to become a person of integrity and to realize that every decision they make has a consequence.

For his exemplary service and contributions to Aviation in Tennessee, our Nation, and the World, Dan William Mills is enshrined in the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame this 27th

day of September, 2025.